


A Second Chance

by araluen_x



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: (most of the story is about canon events, Art, Azula gets her bending taken away, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff and Crack, Friendship, Gaang (Avatar) as Family, Gen, Iroh (Avatar) loves Tea, Iroh is Very Confused, Jet (Avatar) Is An Asshole, Not Beta Read, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Canon, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Zuko is everyone's hot pack, Zuko's Scar (Avatar), Zuko's whole crew is extremely confused really, actually everyone is confused, but I'm going to write about Zuko's rule after the war is over)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:28:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24494275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/araluen_x/pseuds/araluen_x
Summary: Aang's energybending fails, and the war is lost. But before the gaang can blink, they wake up in the past, on the day that Katara and Sokka found the Avatar.The war's a lot easier to win when your biggest enemies are on your side from the beginning.Ft. the gaang's antics, loads of dramatic irony, and literally the entire Fire Nation being confused as to why, when, and how the banished prince got happy emotions and friends
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 367
Kudos: 3659
Collections: A:tla, Terrific Time Travel Fics, Time Travel AUs, avatar tingz





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [love language](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15753762) by [aloneintherain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aloneintherain/pseuds/aloneintherain). 



> sorry that there are so many notes, I promise that this is just for the first chapter!
> 
> so I've learned that apparently I LOVE writing time travel fix-it stories a LOT  
> I've already published one, this is another, and I'm in the middle of writing a different one too  
> I hope everyone else enjoys them just as much!
> 
> I've written 3500 words so far, I'm just posting it in really small chunks  
> I don't really have an upload schedule because I wrote all that in one morning, and I have no idea how often I'm going to write in the future
> 
> this really is gen, there's absolutely no shipping in this  
> I hate writing sexual and romantic interactions a lot, so I'm just... not
> 
> this first paragraph is mostly just completely ripped from canon, but it's only 600 words long, and the time-travelling will start next chapter
> 
> art will be coming, just none for the first chapter, since as I mentioned it's literally just the canon opening to the show
> 
> (oh and I like Suki, but I couldn't really find a way to justify her travelling back with them, sorry!)
> 
> edit December 26 2020 - I have a discord now! if you want to chat with other people who've read this fic and/or hear from me if I make any more updates, then please feel free to join ^^  
> [my discord server ^^](https://discord.gg/TrTsaDbZy5)

“Watch out!” Katara called as the icebergs in front of them collided. “Go left!”

Sokka was trying his best to navigate through the scene, but unfortunately it wasn’t working very well. The water was just too fast. Katara, having only very weak waterbending skills, couldn’t do anything but watch as they got farther and farther from their village.

With a resounding crash, the two icebergs on either side of their canoe smashed together, leaving the siblings totally stranded on an iceberg in the middle of nowhere.

“You call  _ that _ left?” Katara asked, glaring at her brother.

“You didn’t like my steering? Then maybe  _ you _ should have  _ waterbended _ us out of the ice.”

“So it’s  _ my _ fault?!”

Sokka groaned and put his head in his hands. “I  _ knew _ I should have left you home! Leave it to a girl to screw things up!”

Katara stared at him, furious. “You are the most sexist, immature, nut-brained... I’m embarrassed to be  _ related _ to you! Ever since mom died,  _ I’ve _ been doing all the work around camp while  _ you’ve _ been off playing soldier!”

“Katara...” Sokka looked fearfully at the iceberg breaking apart at her back.

“I even wash all the clothes!” she continued. “Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you,  _ not pleasant _ !”

“Katara, settle down!”

“No!” she yelled. “That’s it, I’m  _ done _ helping you. From now on, you’re on your own!”

At that moment, the iceberg cracked in half. Katara finally noticed, but there was nothing either of them could do when it pushed them even farther into the ocean.

“Okay, you’ve gone from weird, to freakish, Katara,” Sokka said.

Katara looked at the remains of the iceberg in wonder. “Do you mean...  _ I  _ did that?”

“Yup.  _ Congratulations _ .”

Just as he said that, a bubbling sound started to come from the water in front of them. In moments, a round iceberg had surfaced right in front of them.

Just as Katara noticed that there was a person inside the iceberg, that person’s eyes opened and began to glow.

“He’s alive!” She took the weapon off of Sokka’s back, ready to break the iceberg. “We have to help.”

“Katara, get back here!” Sokka broke into a run to catch up to her. “We don’t know what that thing is!”

She ignored him and started to whack at the iceberg. The tool seemed to be doing almost nothing, until her final swing caused air to burst out.

The air burst caused a large crack to spread along the iceberg, and seconds later, a beam of blue light burst out.

Katara and Sokka fainted.

* * *

On the other side of the South Pole, a Fire Nation ship was gliding past the icebergs.

The banished Prince Zuko was on the deck, practising his firebending. It was practically the only thing he did these days, other than scouring maps and scrolls for information on the avatar.

Suddenly, directly ahead of the ship, a blue beam of light rose from the middle of nowhere.

Unfortunately for Zuko, he didn’t have any time to realize what it meant, because he fell unconscious the second it touched the sky.

* * *

Toph Beifong sat in the courtyard of her house, silently fuming.

Her earthbending instructor was making her do meditations,  _ again _ . It was useless. She didn’t need to meditate at all; that was a beginner’s step, and she was the best earthbender in the city!

But she had tried telling her parents about her sight, and they hadn’t listened. So until she was old enough to move out, she would have to endure the tedious drills and endless pampering she was put through.

Toph didn’t really have the time to continue the thought, because at that moment, she fainted.


	2. Awakenings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone finally wakes up in the past, and the people around them are reasonably confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so umm like I said the first chapter was just setting the scene, this chapter is where the REAL time-travelling begins!
> 
> I also drew a drawing, it's at the end of one of the scenes!

Katara and Sokka woke up a few minutes later.

Katara sat up and stared at her brother in confusion. “What... are you doing here?”

He looked at her. “What are _you_ doing here? _You’re_ supposed to be in the Fire Nation!”

“Well _you’re_ supposed to be in the Earth Kingdom...”

They finally really noticed their surroundings, which were decidedly neither in the Fire Nation nor the Earth Kingdom.

“We’re... home?” Sokka said it like a question.

“Wait, there’s Aang!” Katara got up and crawled over to her unconscious friend. “Oh no, I hope he’s okay...”

“How are you focusing on _that_ , and not _everything else_!” Sokka asked her incredulously. “Why are we at the south pole?! This happened like a year ago!”

Katara didn’t respond until she was finished healing Aang’s head (in case he got a concussion from his high fall). ”Sokka... what happened in the Earth Kingdom?”

He paused to think. “Well, Aang was fighting Ozai for a long time, until Aang finally had him cornered. I don’t know what happened then, though... there was a blue and red light in the sky, and then the red took over the blue, and that’s the last thing I remember.”

Katara nodded slowly. “So... he lost.”

At that moment, Aang groaned from his position on the ground, and slowly opened his eyes. Then he leapt up, glancing rapidly back and forth between them. “What’s happening?”

“We’re in the past,” Katara said definitively. “But we don’t know how it happened. What did you do when you were fighting Ozai, with the red and blue lights?”

“Oh.” He scratched the back of his head. “That was energybending. A lion-turtle told me how to do it.”

“But it didn’t work,” Sokka said bluntly. Aang winced.

“Yeah, I guess not.”

“Well, whatever freaky avatar stuff caused this to happen, I’m glad it did,” Sokka added as they all stood up and began walking around the iceberg. “You probably only lost because you tried to fight him during Sozin’s comet, but this time we have a full year to defeat him!”

“That’s true,” Katara said as they rounded the corner to reveal Appa. “I wonder if Appa remembers what happened too.”

“Probably,” Aang said, going forward to pat the bison’s head. “He’s connected to me, so if anyone else would remember, it would be him.”

Katara and Sokka climbed onto Appa’s back as he finally started to wake up. “Do you think Toph and Zuko remember too?”

Sokka shuddered. “Zuko had better remember, I don’t want to have to deal with him being all evil and annoying again.”

“I’m sure he will,” Katara decided after a moment. “I mean, I came back, even though I was on a different continent than Aang, and we were _both_ his bending teachers.” She paused to think. “I don’t know why _you_ came back too, though.”

“Hey!” He swatted at her. “I’m important too, you know!”

“We know,” Katara said, giving a comforting smile. “Even though the plan didn’t _totally_ work out, it was your plan that helped Zuko and I take over the city! I just don’t really understand how this all worked.”

Sokka shrugged. “Perhaps it’s just best not to question spirit magic.”

“I guess we won’t gain anything by trying to figure it out,” she relented. “So what’s the plan then, Sokka?”

“I guess we just head back to the village and hope that Zuko isn’t going to try to murder us all,” he responded with a shrug.

* * *

“Prince Zuko?” Iroh helped his unconcious nephew into a more comfortable position on the deck. The guards on the ship were coming upstairs as they heard of the situation, forming a distantly worried circle around the fallen prince.

Finally, the prince groaned and opened his eyes. “Uncle?”

Iroh was immediately very concerned. Zuko had not been this gentle-sounding in years, and the angry scowl he constantly wore was gone from his face. Nothing could possibly have caused his change in demeanor this quickly other than a head injury.

“Prince Zuko, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, sitting up by himself. He didn’t say anything for another minute, just turned around and soaked up his surroundings.

“We’re in the south pole,” he finally noted. “Was there just a blue beam of light in the sky?”

“Yes, Zuko,” his uncle responded, “but-”

“It was the avatar,” Zuko said resolutely. “We need to go find him.”

“Or it was just the celestial lights,” Iroh said. “We’ve been down this road before, Prince Zuko. I don’t want you to get too excited over nothing. Why don’t you come and enjoy a cup of calming jasmine tea downstairs?”

Zuko’s face softened more, if that was even possible. The crew members gathered around shifted uncomfortably - they had absolutely no idea what to think of their captain’s apparent new mood change.

“No, uncle, it was the avatar.” He raised his voice to reach the top of the ship. “Helmsman Kisho, set a course for the southern water tribe!”

This, if anything, caused more internal panic and confusion, because _since when had Prince Zuko known or used the names of any of his crew members?!_

“I would like that cup of tea, though, if the offer is still available.”

* * *

Toph didn’t remember fainting. But what was more unexpected was the situation she found herself in when she woke up.

If she had fainted a week ago, she knew what to expect. Katara probably trying to fix any injury it might have caused, a sleeping bag to lie on, and the general anxiety of everyone in their group (or the ‘gaang’, as Sokka kept telling them to call it).

Instead, she woke up in the softest bed she’d touched in half a year, in an empty room.

She couldn’t tell any more from her position on the bed, which basically deafened her with its excess softness. In order to remedy that, Toph carefully climbed off the bed and stomped the ground to help herself see better.

Was she... at her parents house?

This didn’t make sense at _all_ , but she didn’t have the chance to think it over, because someone was entering the room. Their footsteps weren’t recognizable, because it was the footsteps of one of the generic servants who used to coddle her constantly.

Speaking of...

“Miss Beifong!” the servant called out, a note of urgency in her voice. “Please lie down, you will get hurt if you try walking around by yourself!”

Now normally, Toph wasn’t one to listen to anyone. But... in this situation, she had no idea what was going on, so it might be best to just play along, even if only for a day.

She didn’t say anything out loud, just complied and laid down on the bed. The servant puttered around the room, fixing the sheets and things, asking if Toph felt any better, etc etc.

“How old am I?” she asked finally. That was a good way to figure out if what she thought was happening was _actually_ happening.

“You are 11 years old, Miss Beifong,” the servant said with a bow. Toph resisted the urge to snort, even at that revelation. Why had she bothered to bow when Toph literally couldn’t even see her?

“I’m fine,” she said, finally answering the servant’s earlier question. “You should tell my parents I’m awake... they’re probably worried about me, aren’t they?”

“Of course, Miss Beifong,” the servant stammered, and left the room. Finally, some peace and quiet. 

Toph had one more thing to do. If she was 11, and in the past, would she have retained her metal-bending abilities?

There was a metal water pitcher in the room, which Toph molded easily.

Maybe the past wouldn’t be so bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this is good characterization of them?  
> this is my first time writing anything ATLA related


	3. The First Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone adjusts to a completely different way of life than the one they're used to (AKA being constantly on the run).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've already read chapter 2, please go back and look at the illustration - I went and inked the pencil drawing, and took an actual good photo of it, so it looks much better now!  
> (except Zuko's hands, RIP me and my ability to draw fingers)
> 
> There's no illustration for this chapter, mainly because I don't know which part I should draw.

Just like last time, Aang was tired, and fell asleep before they were even halfway to the tribe. His physical body must have been really tired, so again, they let him sleep, especially as evening turned into night.

When they were almost to the shore, Katara didn’t wait for Appa to close the gap. With a flick of her wrists, she surfed a wave to the shore, dispersing the water when she landed before running in the direction of the snow wall’s entrance. Someone would probably be waiting for them in the village, seeing as they were returning home way later than usual, and she wanted to make sure that everyone was quiet before Aang came so that he wouldn’t wake up.

When she finally reached the center of the town, nobody seemed to be there, until she noticed a glow coming from her own tent. When she pulled back the entrance, one of the mothers of the village was inside. 

“Sedna!” she called softly.

“Katara,” the woman smiled back. Her smile morphed into a frown. “Where is Sokka? Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything’s fine,” she responded. “We got caught in an ice floe, but we found someone who helped us back.”

Sedna frowned. “A person, out in the icebergs?”

“I’ll explain in the morning,” Katara said. “You should head back to your tent. The person who helped us is asleep now, and Sokka is carrying him back here.”

“The stranger is going to be sleeping in your tent?” 

Katara paused. How could she justify herself well? “I’ll explain it to everyone in the morning,” she settled on saying again, in lieu of an explanation.

“Alright,” Sedna finally conceded. “You two have generally good judgement, so I’ll trust you have this under control.”

Katara sighed in relief. “Thank you, Sedna.”

Once the woman was back in her own tent, Katara crept back to the entrance of the village. Sure enough, Sokka was there waiting for her, with Appa behind him.

“Let’s go,” Katara whispered. It took them a minute to get Aang down from Appa’s head, but then Sokka was carrying him back to Katara’s tent.

“Will you be okay staying here for the night?” Katara asked Appa before she followed them. It was still hard to tell how much the sky bison actually understood, but he huffed air into her face and slumped into the ground, so he was probably fine.

When she arrived back at the tent, Sokka wasn’t there. She realized why when a minute later, he returned in a warm pair of pajamas and all of his sheets and pillows bundled up in his arms.

“We haven’t slept alone in a really long time,” he whispered to her as an explanation. “I would feel weird if I stayed at my own tent.”

Katara nodded, understanding the feeling completely.

Sokka spread the extra blankets onto the floor. They were still used to much, much warmer temperatures, so Katara went to go change in one of the supply igloos, and brought back a few quilts that the tribe would usually only use when it was colder out.

Eventually they ended up on either side of Aang. As the current sole firebender in the group, he was the warmest one, so they couldn’t help but gravitate to him.

Only a few minutes later, the original Team Avatar members were all fast asleep.

* * *

Zuko was very much not enjoying sleeping in the Wani.

Everything was wrong. His room was too silent, the temperatures were too cool, and his bed was almost too soft to sleep in, even though it was literally made for prison cells.

Eventually, Zuko gave up trying to sleep like this. Although his footsteps creaked through the metal walls and floors of the ship, he finally made it to and from the linen closet, where he grabbed as many sheets as he could carry at one time.

With layers and layers of sheets surrounding him, Zuko could sleep much easier.

He just had to hope that nobody would wake up before dawn and see him acting so differently than usual. 

* * *

It had been less than a day, and Toph was already going crazy. 

During dinner, her parents had discussed her as if she wasn’t right in front of them. Once, she reached to refill her glass of water, and a servant did it for her. When she sneezed, everyone looked at her in horror, as if they couldn’t believe a delicate little flower or whatever like her would do something so violent.

But she had to wait it out, just like she had six months ago. She had reasoned that this was the day Sugar Queen and Snoozles found Twinkle Toes, and if  _ she _ was in the past, they would be too.

She had to wait for them here, because they wouldn’t be able to find her otherwise. Unless she snuck to the fighting arena and hid out there for a few days... no, her parents would have her found immediately. Ugh, this was so irritating!

At night, Toph couldn’t get to sleep no matter what. It was probably this stupid bed - she could barely see through the layers and layers of cushioning, and it made her feel very vulnerable. Finally, she pulled her pillow and blankets onto the floor, and resolved to sleep there. If someone saw her there, she would just say she fell off at night and couldn’t get back up. Everyone thought she was so useless that they wouldn’t doubt it for a second.

Toph made another resolution, just before she went to sleep. If her friends weren’t here within three days, she was breaking out of this place, regardless of the consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I just have to say that I'm totally blown away by the response this story has gotten. I never expected this much feedback, or this many bookmarks and kudos and everything, especially when this is my first work in the fandom too!!  
> so thank you everyone who's given me any feedback at all, it's really motivating and I appreciate all of it (and it motivated me so much that I wrote another two chapters today, so yay!!)
> 
> Oh and yep I'm definitely updating this WAY too rapidly (especially since I started writing this story literally yesterday morning) but it's fine


	4. The Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some friends are reunited.

As was common for him ever since he had started learning firebending, Aang woke up with the sun.

Much like last time, he was in one of the water tribe tents. However this time, rather than being alone, his friends were asleep on either side of him covered in layers of blankets and quilts.

After a moment of contemplation, he decided to wake them up so they could discuss their plan for the day.

After they had all changed and were ready for the day (which took a while since they didn’t remember where everything was stored), the group sat in a circle in Katara’s tent, trying to decide what to do with this new situation.

“We shouldn’t tell anyone about the time travelling,” Sokka decided after much discussion. “This is the perfect chance to use our knowledge to defeat the Fire Lord!”

“You’re right,” Aang nodded. “Should we tell everyone I’m the avatar, though?”

They paused. “Yes,” Sokka said. “There’s no point in hiding it. The second someone sees your tattoos or a sky bison, they’ll figure it out instantly.”

“That’s true,” Katara agreed with him.

“But pretend you only know airbending,” he added. “That way the Fire Nation will think you’re helpless, and you’ll be able to defeat Ozai easily!”

It was getting to be later in the morning, so they began to hear the sounds of other people in the tribe coming from outside. Katara and Sokka left Aang in the tent so they could prepare the tribe to meet him.

Their grandma was waiting for them outside. “What did you two do yesterday? Sedna told me you met some mystery man out in the icebergs.”

Katara smiled. “The boy that we met is the avatar! You’ll see, he’s the only airbender left in the world.”

“Now, that can’t be true,” Gran-gran responded. “The avatar has been missing for a hundred years now, and there’s no reason an airbender would be here. In fact, everyone thinks they're extinct.”

“Wait a second,,” Katara said, walking back to the entrance of her tent. She emerged a few seconds later with Aang in tow.

“This is the avatar!” Katara announced when they reached the center of the town again. “The airbending Avatar Aang!”

“He can prove it,” Sokka added smugly when almost everybody looked ready to protest it. “Watch and learn, people.”

The easiest way to show it was through flight like last time, so he opened up his flier. Aang just smiled at the kid who gasped in awe at the ‘magic’, and took off into a short flight. Sokka was relieved when this time he didn’t hit the guard tower, even knowing how useless the tower currently was.

“How is this possible?” Gran-gran asked, a small amount of shock visible on her face once Aang landed again.

“I’ve been trapped in an iceberg for the past hundred years,” Aang explained easily. “Then Katara accidentally brought me back!”

“The two of us need to go with him on a quest to help him defeat the Fire Lord,” Sokka added next, as if that was a logical place for the conversation to go. Well, it was, but not to any of the people who were listening to them.

“I’m supposed to be Aang’s waterbending master,” Katara added before anyone could ask. “And Sokka needs to come so he can help us plan to defeat the Fire Lord.”

“Katara,” Gran-gran said bluntly, “you need to be realistic. Don’t put all of your hopes of becoming a waterbender in the hands of one person.”

She paused. How could she explain her mastery of the element without revealing their secret? Well, she reasoned, she didn’t really have to - for now, she could downplay her own abilities. “Just before we found the avatar, I figured out a technique to help me, and I’m able to do a lot more bending now,” she explained after a moment. “Plus, we can go to the Northern Water Tribe and get advice from the benders there.”

Gran-gran visibly winced at the mention of the other tribe. “Katara... they wouldn’t be willing to train you there.”

She shrugged. “Actually, if I fight hard enough, I think they will.”

* * *

“Bring the ship to the side of the tribe,” Zuko called up to his helmsman. “That ridge of snow over there is the wall of their city, so make sure not to crush it.”

The baffled helmsman followed his commands, parking the ship to the side of the village. As the front of the ship lowered to make a ramp, a cluster of people emerged from the entrance of the village.

The tribe members were all carrying makeshift spears and weapons, save the three leaders of the group. The leaders advanced quickly, revealing that they were exactly who he expected - Aang, Katara, and Sokka.

Once he was at the bottom of the ramp, he could see that his friend’s faces were full of trepidation and fear. His heart sank. Maybe he was wrong in assuming they had their memories too...

But they got close enough to see _his_ face, their faces instantly broke into grins.

“You remember too!” Aang said, obviously the first to arrive since he used a burst of air to jump up to Zuko in a single bound. The young airbender instantly wrapped Zuko in a big hug, and he couldn’t really stop the smile that stole onto his face for the first time in this body’s past few years.

Katara arrived next, and enveloped both of them in her own hug. Sokka came after her, albeit begrudgingly.

Suddenly, a sound came from behind Zuko, and everyone simultaneously remembered that _oh, yeah, they were at the entryway of a Fire Nation ship full of Fire Nation officers_. Whoops.

Zuko gently detangled himself from everyone’s limbs, and turned back to his crew, who looked ready to attack his friends. “It’s alright, I’m not in any danger.”

“What...” one of his crew members began, clearly unsure how to continue.

“Prince Zuko, what is the meaning of this?” Iroh asked. It seemed too good to be true that his nephew would decide to help the avatar one day, but it was evidently happening right now... and they were all acting like they knew each other, too.

“Umm...” Zuko glanced back at his friends, suddenly unsure of how to explain himself. He had a feeling that everyone wanted to keep this a secret, but that was already a moot plan, apparently.

“...we need to talk,” Aang said. 

“Let us onto the ship,” Zuko told his guards. “I am going to... negotiate with these prisoners.” The guards, who weren’t paid well enough to question any of this, wordlessly parted for the group of four to climb up the ramp onto the deck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to say, I'm still totally and completely shocked by the response this story has received. Thank you everyone for your comments, kudos, and bookmarks!  
> (fyi I'll still be replying to most comments, although for some of them I'll wait until I've posted the part they're talking about so that I can give an actual response)
> 
> Side note: I have to say though, the one downside of having so many comments is that I was a lot more nervous to post this, knowing how excited everyone was to see this  
> Absolutely none of that is any of your faults, but I still hope that the chapter lived up to all of your expectations!
> 
> oh and one more note - I didn't do any illustrations because honestly I don't know WHAT parts to draw. If any of you don't know what to comment, then feel free to comment which scenes you think I should draw next! I'd really appreciate it!
> 
> A NEW NOTE: if you're wondering when I'm going to update again, since it's been awhile... don't worry, I'm not going to abandon this! I live in Canada, so school isn't out for another week; until then, I'll be working on schoolwork too much to write this  
> once school is over, I'll be back to writing, I promise!


	5. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko "negotiates with the prisoners".

Iroh decided to stay on the deck of the ship with the crew - in any other situation, he would go with his nephew to make sure he didn’t do anything too rash, but Zuko didn’t seem violent at all right now. Also, he wasn’t sure if he could take more weirdness in one day.

Zuko, Aang, Sokka, and Katara went downstairs to Zuko’s bedroom. It was more insulated than most other rooms in the ship, making it the best place to talk about their current situation. The group sat down on the carpet while Sokka looked around distastefully at the garish decorations covering every wall.

“Before we start, there’s something I want to say,” Katara said. “Now that you’re not hurt any more...” she punched Zuko in the shoulder, a habit that came from being around Toph constantly. “Why are you such an idiot?!”

“What happened?” Aang asked curiously.

“He jumped in front of a lightning bolt, that’s what happened!” She punched him again. “You almost died!”

“I just did the logical thing,” Zuko said, trying to defend himself. “If  _ you _ had been hit, you  _ would _ have died, and there wouldn’t be a healer around to help you.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You definitely didn’t have time to think of that when you jumped, and you know that. You really need to get rid of that self-sacrificial streak you have.”

He sighed. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh really? Do I need to bring up that incident at the Western Air Temple? You almost died there too!”

Okay, maybe she had a  _ bit _ of a point.

“ _ Anyways _ , what are we doing next?” Zuko asked, tactlessly changing the topic. “I’m sure Sokka’s made a plan already.”

“Well, first of all, you’re going to kidnap us, and then we’re going to the Southern Air Temple,” Sokka informed him.

Zuko frowned. “What? Why? Isn’t that place deserted?”

“No... because Momo’s there!”

He frowned harder. “Do you really think that’s the most important thing to do right now?”

“Hey, Momo is an integral part of the gaang!” Sokka defended. “Plus, Appa is going to get lonely without him. It’s practically on the way to Gaoling anyways.”

Zuko gave up the argument. “What about after that?”

“We don’t know,” Katara said with a shrug. “It really depends on how Toph has reacted to this. Her parents’ entire property might be in ruins at this point. And we need to make sure nobody suspects our time travel.”

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about our village seeing us together,” Sokka added, “but that’s fine, because nobody’s going to leave here anyways!”

“Alright,” Zuko nodded. “That just leaves Uncle and the crew of my ship. Umm... if I pretend to take you all prisoner, I don’t think the crew will do anything, so that’s fine.”

“Are you sure?” Katara looked at him critically. “We all know how hostile most Fire Nation soldiers are these days. What if they attack us, or tell Zhao we’re here?”

“I doubt that will happen,” Zuko told them. “I’m still the commander of this vessel, and they’ll probably listen to me.”

“There’s a lot of doubt in that sentence,” Sokka informed him.

“Well, they’re less likely to want to kill you than other Fire Nation citizens anyways,” Zuko added. “There’s a reason they’re all on a ship with me, the banished prince. Everyone here has had some problem with authority at some point.”

“Wow,” Sokka said drily. “You’re really selling yourself here.”

Zuko threw his hands up in the air in response.

“What about your uncle?” Katara asked. “It might be fine to tell him, but what if he tells the White Lotus? Then far too many people will be in on the secret.”

Zuko frowned. “I want to tell him... but I think he’ll understand if we don’t. He will be happy enough just to see me not trying to kill the avatar.”

Sokka nodded sagely. “Hey, I bet he'll be even  _ more _ happy that he can finally stop shouting proverbs at you!” He elbowed Zuko in the ribs, who scowled shallowly back at him.

“Uncle is  _ never _ going to stop giving me useless proverbs,” he said.

“They’re not useless,” Aang defended. Everyone rolled their eyes and ignored him - Aang’s innate understanding of Iroh’s proverbs made him immune to the confusion the rest of them felt, so his opinion didn’t count.

Before anyone could mention anything else, there was a knock on the door, and a Fire Nation soldier opened it after a moment. “Sir, some water tribe savages are attempting to board the ship.” They hovered at the door and stared at the group for a second after delivering the message, before visibly shaking themselves and turning away.

“Right!” Katara stood up. “The tribe probably still thinks I’m being abducted right now, since I’m a waterbender.”

  
  


“Okay,” Sokka said, finalizing their plan. “Just tell everyone you’re letting us say one last goodbye to our tribe before you kidnap us. We’ll tell the tribe that you’re not a threat, so as long as our tribe and your crew don’t talk to each other, we’re all set!”

The four children went back out onto the deck, walking past Iroh and the crew back to the ship entrance.

Sure enough, a group of footprints in the snow at the end of the ramp proved that a group of the tribe members had been attempting to board the  _ Wani _ . Unfortunately for them, since the ramp started so narrowly, it had only taken one Fire Nation officer with a sword to fend off all of their attacks, so they were now regrouping a quarter of the way back to the village. 

“Step aside, Ika,” Zuko told her when they arrived. “I’m, uh, letting the savages say goodbye to their family before we take them to the Fire Kingdom.” That was most definitely  _ not _ following regulations, but the soldier did so anyways after only a moment of hesitation.

For their part, the Water Tribe women watched in shock as Katara, the last southern waterbender, casually walked off of a Fire Nation ship, decidedly not a prisoner. (Sure, some of them had seen her hug the Fire Nation teenager with the scar earlier, but they had chalked that up to mass hysteria considering how much more insane that would be if it  _ was _ true).

“Sokka and I will talk to Gran-gran,” Katara told Aang and Zuko. “You two should probably wait with Appa.”

“Come on,” Sokka said once he reached the Water Tribe members who had tried to rescue them. They followed him back to the village numbly - Sokka was the number one most paranoid member of their tribe, the person who trained their children to fight before they could properly talk, the one who made a guard tower solely to watch out for Fire Nation attackers, and now he was acting as if they weren’t in mortal danger? Nobody understood what on earth was going on.

Gran-gran was at the entrance of the village, watching them as they returned from the Fire Nation vessel with half the tribe in tow.

“We’re okay,” Katara told Gran-gran before she even had a chance to say something. “This ship is on the side of the avatar.”

“They are Fire Nation,” she responded, as if that was an explanation by itself (well, it kind of was).

“Aang recognized a secret symbol on their uniforms that means they’re secretly avatar supporters,” Katara made up, while Sokka nodded enthusiastically. “Think about it. I’m a waterbender, and Aang is the avatar, and they know that. Yet we just went onto their ship, and then exited without any harm done. Trust us, okay?”

“We’re going to leave with the avatar,” Sokka said. “And we should be going as soon as possible. We need to find someone from the Earth Kingdom who can teach Aang earthbending too.”

Gran-gran looked ready to object, so Katara leapt in to add some more reassurances.

“We’ll have the avatar with, so what’s the worst that could happen? Plus I’m really good at waterbending now, and Sokka has been training with his boomerang and spear lately. ”

Gran-gran stood back and scrutinized them. Her face fell a little bit. “You two are stubborn, and I can tell you’re going to go either way. Just be careful, alright?”

They smiled at her and nodded, knowing full well that they were probably not going to be careful at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this didn't come out sooner!! I was going to publish this as soon as school was over, but I had to give my laptop back to the school since I graduated, so I couldn't post this until I got a new laptop.
> 
> oh and I also have to say, I'm still completely blown away by the feedback this fic is getting. I mean, getting comments and bookmarks and kudos as I write is one thing, but I can't believe you all kept doing that even when I didn't post for so long!!  
> now that I have a laptop I'll start replying to comments again, but to everyone's I don't reply to - thank you so much!!

**Author's Note:**

> This story is slightly inspired by "The Avatar Makes Three"  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/16598252
> 
> I'll also be using some aspects from "love language" because I love the idea so much  
> Honestly, you can consider it completely canon (other than the last section obviously) because I 100% believe that they cuddle constantly, and would begin doing so with Zuko the second they started feeling comfortable with him  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/15753762
> 
> Please be aware that this is kind of just sporadically updated, and I can't guarantee that it will ever be finished!  
> This fic is kind of secondary to the bnha ones I'm writing, which unlike this one, I have actually planned out beforehand.
> 
> if you want to talk to each other and/or hear from me if I decide to make any more updates, I have a Discord server now!  
> [my discord server ^^](https://discord.gg/TrTsaDbZy5)


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